Gaming the H-1B lottery

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Aug. 1, 2024

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Read the story A finite number of US visas for highly-skilled workers are up for grabs each year, and the only way to obtain a coveted H-1B is through a government-run lottery. Tech giants, startups, banks and drugmakers are all vying for slots, hoping to snap up international graduates of top US universities who must otherwise leave the country. Last year, 446,000 names were put in the hat—most didn't get picked. The game, it turns out, is rigged. New federal data obtained by Bloomberg News reveal how thousands of companies got an unfair advantage by helping themselves to extra lottery tickets. The result is a system that fails US workers, stiff-arms talented immigrants and enriches a class of middlemen. Read The Big Take.

Listen to the podcast On today's Big Take podcast, investigative journalists Eric Fan and Zachary Mider explain how outsourcing companies and staffing firms exploited loopholes in the H-1B system to boost their odds while flying under the radar. Subscribe and listen on iHeart, Apple and Spotify.

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